However strange that may sound, the fact is that at the dawn of Renaissance the artists had a strange habit of painting… flies! Both in Italy and in the Northern Europe we may find various examples of a trompe-l’œil depictions of a fly. In most cases it is assumed that it…
The Laocoön Group is one of the most famous ancient sculptures, depicting mythical Laocoön and his sons being killed by the snakes. The statue was discovered in Rome in 1506 – it was unearthed in the vineyard of certain Felice De Fredis. Immediately Giuliano da Sangallo was called to the site…
The Old Masters often had their individual types of female beauties: perhaps muses or mistresses, who were the models for their Madonnas, Venuses or Dianas. Usually when we see particular type of female face repeated in many paintings of one artist, we tend to assume that it may be a…
[This post is unsuitable for people under 18.] Analysing sexual positions and publishing sex manuals is something we often associate with the Sexual Revolution of the second half of the 20th century. But today I will not write about contemporary publications on the subject but rather go back to…
Today I would like to focus on one of the most famous masterpieces of Polish collections: The Lady with an Ermine (ca. 1490). The painting, by Leonardo da Vinci, is usually interpreted as a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, who was a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. This interpretation…